Small business employment continues slow upward climb in December

Intuit’s Small Business Employment and Revenue Indexes revealed that small business employment grew in December for the second consecutive month, following flat performance from May to October.

In December, small business employment rose 0.1 percent, a gain of 20,000 jobs. Since March 2010, small business employers have added more than 555,000 jobs.

“After no progress from May through October, small business employment has now resumed its slow rise for the second month in a row,” Susan Woodward, the economist who works with Intuit to create the indexes, said. “For December, the growth rate is about one-tenth of one percent, for an annualized rate of just over one percent.”

Average monthly compensation, however, fell 0.05 percent—or $1—from November, and the average monthly hours worked by hourly employees decreased 0.2 percent from November.

“Small business employment continues to recover even more slowly than overall employment,” Woodward said. “The recovery for non-farm payroll employment is just under six percent from the trough in February 2010, while the employment recovery for private payroll, not including government, is a bit over seven percent. By comparison, small business recovery is only 2.8 percent for the same period.”

Small business employment increased in nearly all of the 38 states tracked by Intuit. Washington posted the largest increase, followed by Florida and Minnesota, while employment in Wisconsin, Connecticut, Ohio, New Jersey and Missouri declined, led by a 0.2 percent decline in Michigan.